Bob Baker's Book Promotion Blog

Your Facebook Author Page: 5 Simple Ways to Get More LIKES

Facebook. You know it's huge -- more than a billion people around the globe are registered users. Without a doubt, it's the most prominent social media site on the planet.

I'm sure you also know that, in addition to having a personal profile for yourself as a person, you can also create a "fan page" for your book, publishing company, or yourself as an author.

If you haven't done so, you can create a fan page by going to www.facebook.com/pages while you're logged into your FB account.

Great. That's the easy part. Once you've created a fan page, you have to attract people to it and encourage them to "Like" it. And that's where a lot of authors and publishers get hung up.

So, whether you just started a fan page and are wondering what to do first, or you already have a fan page but it's been stagnant for a while, here are five ways to generate a more likes:

1) Invite friends from your personal profile. You can't create a Facebook fan page until you first have a personal profile on the site. Be sure to let your personal friends know about your fan page. Post occasional status updates on your personal profile that link to your fan page -- and directly ask people to "like" it!

Important: A key to making this work is to briefly explain why they should do this. Don't just post "Please like my fan page." Instead say, "I want you to stay up to date on all of my writing and speaking activities. So please take a moment to like my fan page. Your support is vital to my evolution as an author. I'd love for you to be a part of my success story!" See the difference?

2) Announce your fan page to your email list. You do have an email list of fans, right? If not, you had better get cracking building one. It's your number one marketing asset. Assuming you DO have a list, no matter what the size, be sure you have a link to your fan page in every email you send. And again, politely but firmly ask people to visit and "like" it. And, of course, give them a reason why it's important to them and to you.

3) Add a link to your email "sig file." A signature file is a small bit of descriptive text that is added to the end of every email you send. Include a number of links to your various sites here. The primary online destination you should list is your author or publishing company website. But right under it should be a few other options, such as your Twitter and YouTube profile links, as well as your Facebook fan page. Be sure to list it in every email you send.

4) Link to your fan page from your author website. Ideally, you want your presence on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites to filter traffic to your author or publishing company website. But it's also a good idea to link back out to those destinations from your site. Let people know about the many places where they can find you online. Why? Some people are addicted to Facebook, some are hooked on Twitter, others are YouTube-aholics. Meet people where they are, not just where you prefer them to be.

5) Link to your fan page from Twitter, YouTube, Google+, etc. All of your online profile pages should point to each other. All of them serve to cross-promote the others. That's why it's called the Web. Everything is interconnected to everything else. So keep that in mind as you strive to increase the likes on your Facebook fan page.

In what other ways have you generated more fan page likes? I welcome your comments.